Meetings!
In the end, I ended up attending one of Rypmaw’s public lectures on my own. It slightly pained me to have to pay my own money for a whim this trivial, but I was determined to put my best face on it. Clearly this was a lesson for me to arrange my circumstances better in the future.
The hall was not crowded in a physical sense, but what it lacked in bodies it more than made up for in money. Most of the old families had several representatives on display, including more than a few that I knew personally — or professionally, in my way. Those latter I merely exchanged nods with, although I don’t know what I would have done if any of them had been people who still owed me recompense.
By that I really don’t know what I would have done. There was an air in the room that I did not care for. It felt like there had been a flaming row going on, just before I arrived, and now everyone was carefully holding their tongues, lest they say something regrettable. No-one acted hostile to me, but I could feel myself step back a pace in my own head, the better to observe for trouble. What kind of trouble? Damned if I knew —
“Harry!” boomed someone behind me, and I jumped, just a touch. That earned me a laugh as I turned to see… Georgie, of all people. He shook his head, grinning. “You jumped like a rabbit hearing a wolf!”